In Italy, manslaughter is being investigated in connection with the sunken yacht off Sicily VIDEO

The Italian prosecutor's office opened a manslaughter investigation in connection with the death of British technology magnate Mike Lynch and six more people who died after a luxury yacht sank during an unexpectedly strong storm off the island of Sicily earlier this week, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.

The head of the public prosecutor's office in the city of Termini Immerse, Ambrogio Cartozio, said that although the yacht was at the center of a sudden weather phenomenon, it was “probable“ that it is also a question of crimes such as “homicide by negligence” and “negligently causing shipwreck“.

So far, the investigation is not focused on a specific person, he specified.

Hannah – Lynch's 18-year-old daughter is also among the victims of the sinking of the 56-meter yacht “Baysian“ (Bayesian) that ran into a heavy storm at dawn on Monday off Porticello, near Palermo. Among those who died in the shipwreck were Lynch's lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, as well as Jonathan Blumer, a banker from “Morgan Stanley” who appeared as a witness for Lynch in a case against him in New York with his wife. The chef of the yacht also died.

Fifteen people survived, including the captain and Mike Lynch's wife.

The incident could turn out to be even more painful if the investigation shows it was caused by “behavior that was not consistent with the responsibilities that everyone should assume in shipping,” Cartosio said.

Captain James Cutfield and the other survivors were questioned this week by authorities. None of them have publicly commented on how the yacht, owned by Lynch's company, sank.

Raffaele Camarano, another prosecutor involved in the investigation, said that when authorities questioned Cutfield, he was “extremely cooperative”.

The yacht's sinking has baffled maritime experts, who say a vessel like the Baysian, built by high-end Italian yacht builder Perini, should have weathered the storm and in any case should not have sunk so quickly. , as it has become.

The download of the “Bayesian“ from the sea will help investigators determine what happened, but the operation is likely to be complicated and expensive. The yacht lies apparently intact at a depth of 50 meters below sea level.

The CEO of the Italian marine group that owns “Perini” Giovanni Constantino, told Reuters this week that the shipwreck was the result of a series of “inexplicable, unreasonable mistakes” made by the crew, and ruled out any faults in the design or construction of the vessel.

Camarano said the weather event that affected the ship was most likely a very strong downwind, which is an intense but relatively common occurrence at sea, and not a tornado.

He pointed out that during the storm all the passengers were probably asleep, which is why they were unable to save themselves.

The head of the Palermo Coast Guard, Raffaele Macauda, said there was no specific ban on the ship being anchored where it was hit by the storm, as weather bulletins at the time did not report a major storm threat for the wider area of the southwestern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Cartosio did not rule out the possibility of starting an investigation against a specific person, even before the vessel was brought to the surface. According to him, the captain, crew and passengers have no legal obligation to stay in Italy until the end of the investigation, but the authorities expect them to cooperate with the investigators.

The prosecutor said it was not possible to test the survivors for alcohol or drugs because they were in a state of shock and needed treatment for their injuries.

In the sunken yacht, the bodies of the dead were found in the cabins on her left side, where passengers may have tried to gasp for air, Palermo fire chief Girolamo Bentivolio Fiandra said at a press conference today.